ESOF2010 Newsletter #2

ESOF 2010 – One Year Ahead

Enrico Predazzi - ESOF2010 Champion

Dear Friends,
One year goes by very quickly when things move so fast. Even though ESOF 2010 may seem a long time ahead, we are working hard to organize such a complex and exciting event.
The Call for Proposals for the Scientific Programme has been successful, and almost all plenary and keynote speakers have been selected. It’s a formidable and diverse list of prominent scholars (including three Nobel laureates), more than one third of which are women.
The Career, Science to Business and Science in the City Programmes are also shaping up, and we expect a good return by mid September, when the deadline is set. The Communication team is planning new actions and strategies. Networks of collaborations are being activated in various areas.
We will get back to you with a third Newsletter in November, when the programme will be almost completed, and registration will likely start. Stay tuned, and help us to make ESOF 2010 a truly memorable event.

ESOF2010: Work in Progress

Scientific Programme

In the past months, the Scientific Programme team has worked on two main projects: the dissemination of the Call for Proposals and the choice of Plenary and Keynote speakers. The overall schedule of the event has also been designed. There will be 90-100 ordinary sessions, 4 Plenary and 18 Keynote talks; sessions will start at 9 a.m. and end at 7.15 p.m.
The Call for Proposal was launched in December 2008 and closed on June 30, 2009. More than 750 people from over 60 countries registered in the dedicated area, and 200 proposals from 26 countries were submitted by June 30.
In choosing Plenary and Keynote speakers, we took into account not only scientific pre-eminence (which was taken for granted), but also the communication skills of the candidates, and cultural and gender diversity. Here’s the preliminary list of those who have accepted.
Plenary: Peter Agre, Julia Fischer, Kurt Wüthrich, Anton Zeilinger.
Keynote: Sam Auinger, Angelika Brandt, Elena Cattaneo, Carlos Duarte, Ernst Fehr, Serge Feneuille, Tecumseh Fitch, Raghavendra Gadagkar, Mohamed Hassan, Sheila Jasanoff, Tom Kirkwood, Vladimir Kutcherov, Leena Peptone, Svante Pääbo, Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson.

Career Programme

The ESOF Career Programme is specifically addressed to PhDs, post-docs and young researchers, who will meet, share experiences, and benefit from sessions dedicated to the development of specific skills (communication, writing, interviews etc.). The programme will consist of approximately 20 sessions in 2-3 days of activity. A call for proposals for ESOF2010 Career Programme is on line at www.esof2010.org open until September 15.
We encourage the participation of groups of young researchers and students, to be possibly sponsored by companies or other private institutions. The groups will reach Torino by bus (ideally a low emission vehicle) or some other low-cost transportation. The Science Bus Template (describing the experience of the Torino-Barcelona Science bus at ESOF2008) is downloadable at www.esof2010.org/shuttles
Following similar and successful programmes in the past editions, the Pizza with the Prof event will allow future and young researchers to meet prominent scientists in an informal context.

Science to Business Programme

Building on the success of the ESOF for Business Programme at ESOF2008 in Barcelona, a Science to Business Programme will be proposed during ESOF2010. The main innovation is the launch of an open Call for selecting proposals, on line at www.esof2010.org. Again, the deadline is September 15.
The programme also features a specific session format, the “showcase”, where universities, incubators and other non-profit organisations will be offered a proper setting to present their innovative activities or prototypes. Overall, we expect to organise 15-20 sessions in two days of activity.
A brand new and entertaining event, called Science Speed Dating, will allow attendees to arrange a quick and informal meeting with representatives from the world of science and business.

Science in the City

The Science in the City Programme will set the Torino city centre in motion, hosting exhibitions, workshops, popular lectures, scientific treasure hunts, music and theatrical performances. A stunningly impressive square in the middle of the city (Piazza Vittorio Veneto) has been reserved for top events. Activities for the larger public will take place mostly in the afternoons and evenings, from 5 to 11 pm. The White Night of Research will engage the whole city centre all night long.
Furthermore, Torino has been declared European Youth Capital for the year 2010 by the European Youth Forum. This will be a great opportunity to increase the outreach programme and attract an international audience.

School and teachers Programmes

Special programmes will be dedicated to schools and teachers, starting well before the commencement of ESOF2010. Several activities will be held during the school year 2009/2010 to go with both students and teachers toward ESOF2010.
Moreover, a special event addressed to young people will be organised on suggestion from Sir Harold Kroto.
More information on the School and Teachers Programme will be soon available on our website.

Communication and Promotion

We have so far participated in many international events. After ESOF 2008 in Barcelona where we had a promotional stand and brought a busload with 40 university students, one of the most important was the AAAS meeting in Chicago from 18 to 22 February 2009, where ESOF2010 organized a joint press conference with the World Conference of Science Journalists. Then we attended the ECSITE annual conference in Milan, from 4 to 6 June 2009, and the World Conference of Science Journalists in London (WCSJ) from 30 June to 2 July, where ESOF2010 has participated with a promotional stand. WCSJ marks the start of the next communication phase, in which we will raise awareness of the event and contact the international science press.

ESOF2010 on the Web

In the last few months the website www.esof2010.org has been redesigned in order to make it more user-friendly and appealing. A graphic time line has been included, and a text-only version has been published to increase accessibility. The new banner promoting the calls for proposals and the ESOF2010 event is hosted by several websites.
From January 1, 2009 the site has been visited by about 23.000 visitors; 40% of the traffic is from referring sites (a good signal for the communication team), we had visitors from 122 countries around the world, our group on Facebook has about 300 members – ESOF2010 is spreading in the net!